Hiyori Sarugaki
Hiyori Sarugaki (猿柿 ひよ里, Sarugaki Hiyori) is a former Lieutenant of the 12th Division under Captains Kirio Hikifune and Kisuke Urahara, and currently a Vizard. Appearance Hiyori is a very short, blonde-haired girl who wears her short hair in stubby pigtails. She wears a red jogging suit decorated with the first kanji of her name and flip flops. She also has an overly long fang protruding from the lower left side of her mouth. This physical characteristic has caused both Ichigo and Shinji to call her "snaggletooth". During her time in Soul Society she wore a standard Shinigami uniform with her lieutenants armband on her left arm. During this time her pigtails were fairly long and hung down. Personality Despite her small size, Hiyori is an aggressive and short-tempered girl with rather violent tendencies. Her most common victim being Shinji Hirako, whom she frequently abuses, usually by smacking him with one of her sandals or kicking and punching him in the face. She has even made it a reflex to use him as a human shield when necessary, and show him an obvious lack of respect, a gesture that he seems to return. This behavior dates back to her time as a Lieutenant, despite the fact that Shinji outranked her back then. She shows very little respect to the majority of people around her, easily losing her temper or getting into fights. Having viewed her former Captain Kirio Hikifune as a mother figure, Hiyori was quite hurt by her departure and initially refused to accept Urahara as her replacement, even treating him with her trademark violence and disrespect, despite his attempts to be her friend. When Kirio Hikifune was in charge of her, Hiyori was very respectful to her old captain as a sign of respect and trust but still smacked everyone else around. Hiyori also seems to harbor a hatred of both Shinigami and Humans. As a result of her thorny disposition and possible insecurities, Hiyori never seems to display much emotion besides anger, and always appears to be frowning. During her time training, she never succeeded in making Ichigo call her "Hiyori-san" (Miss Hiyori). Though she calls Ichigo and Ryan "dumbass" amongst other names. Background Original Bleach Story When Ichigo decides to finally show up at the Vizards' warehouse, planning to "use" them to help him control his inner Hollow.23 As the other Vizard have a conversation about the status of the fight, Hiyori gets bored and walks toward the battle and tells Hachi to add another five layers to the barrier. She then attacks Shinji knocking him away and through a nearby wall. Hiyori then explains to Ichigo that he has the who situation backwards, as they want him with them but its not up to him its up to them. Only after seeing his power will they decide, he has no right to choose, from their point of view if he is powerful enough they will teach him how to keep his inner hollow in check. She then tells him to Hollowfy but Ichigo refuses but Hiyori puts on her mask and tells him she already told him he has no choice. She then tells him that if he is to scared she has no choice but to pull out his inner hollow by force. After some considerable fighting Ichigo is left tired with many injuries. She continues to goad him on but he still refuses to use his mask. Hiyori then tells him that at the very least he should use his Bankai, after he refuses she tells him that she knows why he wont use his powers and then fiercely attacks him. Which brings his inner hollow to the surface allowing him to gain possession over Ichigo's body. He then quickly attacks Hiyori before she can react breaking her mask, slamming her into a wall and he then proceeds to strangle her with one hand. The other Vizard, quickly restrain Ichigo before he can kill her. Shinji then determines that they have seen all that they need to see and asks Hiyori if she approves, but she is to terrified and shaken to respond. Ichigo after gaining control over his body once again is later seen training with Hiyori with the pair using their hollow masks while fighting. 30 When Hachi becomes alerted when he detects someone has slipped inside his barrier, the other Vizard are surprised. Orihime Inoue then shows up and is revealed to Hachi and the other Vizard to be a culprit. They are shown to be quite shocked to see that a simple human could perform such a feat. She is then seen with the rest of the Vizard arriving at the fake Karakura Town, intercepting Aizen, Gin, and Tōsen's release from Captain-Commander Yamamoto's Blazing Fortress. When Shinji asks his fellow Vizard if they have anyone in the Gotei 13 whom they want to speak to, Hiyori says no. Shinji tells her to shut up as he wasn't asking her. She screams at him asking why wouldn't he be asking her like he asked everyone else. When Lisa leaves, she asks her where she is going and does the same when Shinji leaves. When Shinji returns from speaking to Captain-Commander Yamamoto the the huge hollow creature spews forth a large horde of Gillian-class Menos from its mouth. Hiyori is among the Vizard when they put on their masks to prepare for battle. Hiyroi stands ready for battle as the other Vizard draw their Zanpakutō and attack the Gillian. Hiyori displays her power when she cuts a Gillian hollows mask down the middle with her Zanpakutō and the blow it away with a point blank Cero blast that kills several other hollows. When Lisa Yadomaru and Hiyori engages in battle to offer aid to 10th Division captain Tōshirō Hitsugaya in his battle against 3rd Espada Tia Harribel. Hitsugaya then states that there is no point of questioning if the Vizard are friend or foe under the circumstances. Hiyori agrees seeing as she really could care to be helping out Shinigami, she admits that now is not the time to fight amongst each other Hitsugaya asks Hiyori if they can take care of the Espada as he wants to go fight Aizen. Hiyori yells at Hitsugaya noting the Vizard has come for revenge against him and Hitsugaya was already having problems fighting Harribel so what makes him think he can take Aizen. Hitsugaya admits that she is right and tells her he is sorry he just panicked. Instead of letting it go Hiyori starts an argument with Hitsugaya, to which he just remains silent until she questioned his position as a captain insinuating he is a kid. This prompts Hitsugaya to yell back at her, causing the two to get into a big fight. Lisa becomes annoyed and goes to attack Harribel by herself. Hiyori dons her Hollow mask and releases her Shikai and goes to attack Harribel alongside Lisa and Hitsugaya, the resulting attack creates a large explosion. Following the explosion, Aizen appears and strikes down Harribel killing her, leaving Hiyori to appear next to Shinji. Hiyori sets her sight on Aizen as her Hollow mask dissipates. Shinji appears near her and tells her and the others that it would be best not to be too quick to go near him, explaining that with Aizen's ability, one would be done for before it begins if they don't have a plan in mind. Hiyori tells him that they know that much, but Shinji tells her that he specifically talking to her, as he tells her to stand down. Aizen begins to taunt them stating that regardless of what they do the ending will still be the same, as their fates had already been decided. Shinji tells Hiyori to not listen as he is only trying to provoke her. Aizen goes on stating they have nothing more to fear seeing as they all died that night over 200 years ago. This taunt completely sends Hiyori over the edge, as she becomes enraged and proceeds towards Aizen to attack him, as Shinji yells to her to stop. Before she realizes it, Hiyori's body is severed at the waist by Gin Ichimaru's Shikai, and goes into shock as she sees the bottom portion of her body fall behind the top half. Shinji screams to Hiyori and immediately catches the top half of her as she falls. Hiyori, now seemingly fatally injured, tells Shinji that she is sorry as she just couldn't control herself. Shinji calls to Hachi but upon realizing that he only has one arm, he instantly remembers that Orihime Inoue can heal as he yells for Ichigo. Shinji then gives Hiyori, who is breathing quite shallowly now, to Hachi as he goes to fight Aizen. Synopsis New Enemy, Sadow Yatsumaru arc : Note: Events in this arc are considered filler and are not part of the canon of this story, and therefore do not contest anything canon in this story. Though unnamed, Hiyori first appeared while being briefed by Ryan on the arrancar army of Sadow. Shinji senses Sadow's forces arrive and the Vizard leave to protect the city. The arrancar introduce themselves as the Exequias and attack the Vizard. Lisa, Hachi and Love charge in and attacks the commander and his forces. The fight is interrupted, however, when Shinji appears and releases his zanpakuto. Powers & Abilities Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Hiyori is a very capable hand-to-hand fighter who commonly use various kicks in combination with her Zanpakutō to take out opponents. She has highly aggressive tendencies often make her lash out at other people even under normal circumstances. She has enough skill to hold her own against a dangerous inmate from the Maggot's Nest who had taken her hostage. Enhanced Strength: Both as a lieutenant and a Vizard, she brutally beat up Shinji and Ichigo using her enhanced strength and her hand-to-hand combat. Enhanced Speed: Her speed is considerable and she regularly uses it to supplement her fighting skill surprising those she attacks. Immense Spiritual Power: Being a Vizard, Hiyori possesses a dual-type spiritual energy, part Shinigami and part Hollow. Her spiritual energy is pink in color. With her mask on, she can focus considerable amounts of energy into a blast to knock targets away. Zanpakuto Kubikiri Orochi (馘大蛇, Beheading Serpent): Hiyori's Zanpakutō is standard in appearance, even though its tsuba (decorated sword guard) is decorated in small hearts, a contrast to her not-so-girlish personality. During her days as a Lieutenant, she would wear it by her belt, but as a Vizard, she normally carries her sword from her right shoulder on her back. * Shikai: It's Shikai command is Chop Cleanly (ぶっ手切れ, buttegire). With this release, Hiyori's katana becomes a large cleaver with a serrated saw-like blade. : Shikai Special Ability: Unknown. * Bankai: Not Yet Achieved. Hollowfication Hollow Mask: Her hollow mask is skeletal in appearance and sports a prominent horn centered on the forehead with a row of diamond shaped markings over the eyebrows. Also when donning her hollow mask Hiyori's sclera turns completely black and her irises become golden-yellow. She took the longest to defeat her inner Hollow out of all the current Vizard (excluding Ichigo, who took about the same amount of time), at 69 minutes and 2 seconds. When angered or provoked in some way, the mask's power increased due to her emotions ruling her. * Power Augmentation: While wearing the mask, Hiyori's Hollow powers supplement her Shinigami powers, giving her a vast increase in both strength and speed. * Cero: While fighting an army of Menos, Hiyori displays the ability to fire a Cero from the open mouth of her Hollow Mask. The blast is wide and can take out more then one target at once.